A kindness revolution
By Josh Hatcher, Outreach Pastor

Something is missing in my life, and in the lives of those around me. That something is community.

We live in a day when people don't even know their neighbors' names. To be honest, I don't know all of my neighbors' names. We get distracted sometimes by our own agendas and it keeps us from really living in community.

In January, I was shoveling snow and decided to shovel my neighbor's driveway as well. A couple hours later, I had shoveled all the driveways on my street. As I shoveled, I wondered, "What if 1,000 people decided that they would do something nice for someone today?"

After hearing a story about a man whose body sat mummified for more than a year in his apartment, I was moved to action.

A silent subway ride in New York City further cemented my convictions. Sociologists talk about this new trend as "crowded loneliness." Shame on us for thinking we are too good to reach out to the people around us!

I want 1,000 people to commit to do one kind deed a day for another person for a year. Those 365,000 acts of kindness could transform a community.

I've started work on a website, onekindness.org, where visitors can enter their kind deeds. This may encourage people to be more conscious about showing kindness. Perhaps some will get in the habit of looking for needs around them that they can meet.

It might involve buying a couple extra cans of soup to give to the food bank, volunteering for a few hours at a local care home, or donating your old car to the young couple down the street who can't afford one.

Some of us have little; some of us have much. No matter our station in life, we can all give something.

This project is a ministry of Open Arms Community Church, but that doesn't mean that it is exclusively Christian in nature. I want it to be a lifestyle that people adopt, regardless of faith or denomination.

Kindness is a good thing, and if we want this world to be a better place, we've got to start showing a lot more of it.

For more information please contact me by phone at 814- 331-1721